iPhone: At New York's Penn Station, Be Careful When Using It

If you're an iPhone or smartphone owner and find yourself in New York City's Penn Station, as this blogger does frequently when visiting Manhattan, be careful if you need to use it out in the open.  Someone may try to grab it.

I ran across this tweet by Don Van Natta, Jr:

DVNJr Don Van Natta Jr.
Just had a guy try to rip my iPhone out of my hands outside Penn Station. He failed. Try to take my iPhone and you're going to get hurt.

That happened not on Christmas day, today, but on December 21st, but it's still wrong.

Apple needs to build-in voice recognition software that periodically checks in with the user. That way, if someone does steal an iPhone, and it "recognizes" that the user is someone else, the phone will just shut down.

That aside, the person who tried to take his iPhone learned a hard lesson: don't mess with an iPhone owner.

Twitter Down, Then Up, Sort Of, On Christmas Day

First, Merry Christmas! And it's that greeting, and its variations, that fills thousands, if not millions of tweets, all causing one thing: Twitter down.

Well, Twitter appears to be back up now, but not in it's exactly normal condition. For example, this blogger's Twitter account reports the number of followers, and followed, but when the links to the lists are clicked on, the words "you have no followers at this time" come up.

That's weird.

Well, while we're all waiting for Twitter to come back to full normal, check out their latest acquistion: Fluther.com.

Fluther.com is a site that uses crowdsourcing to help members find answers to questions. I just joined, and was presented with five questions I've got to deal with.

But they'll have to wait. It's Christmas! Folks are coming over. There's a lot of great food to be consumed. And I've got to watch the LA Lakers clobber the Miami Heat, then turn to the Warriors game!

Merry Christmas!

Ryan Seacrest @ryanseacrest Looks Tired At Twitter

@ryanseacrest, originally uploaded by @Twitter.

This is the photo of a man who works too much! American Idol Host and hardest working man in media, Ryan Seacrest looks like he could use a morning coffee in this photo uploaded by Twitter staff November 10th, and after Ryan's visit to Twitter Headquarters.

Wow, what did Seacrest do the night before?

ITunes Dominates Christmas Search Trends

On Christmas morning, iTunes, Apple's music and movies download success, is dominating search trends as reported on Google Trends.

1. stores open on christmas 2010
2. leapfrog.com/connect
3. www.itunes.com/download
4. itunes.com/download
5. itunes download
6. itunes store
7. www.apple.com/support/manuals/ipod
8. i tunes
9. twas the night before christmas text
10. winn dixie


As of this writing, five of the top 10 searches include the keyword "iTunes."

Wild!

NORAD Santa Tracker Has Santa Ending In Hilo, Hawaii, Not North Pole

Merry Christmas! Say, perhaps NORAD's Santa Tracker is a bit off. Well, OK, a lot off. It has Santa ending his epic sleigh ride in Hilo, Hawaii, and not The North Pole.

If you've never seen the NORAD Santa Tracker, here's my video on it, first:



There should be a video of Santa landing at The North Pole!  

Stay tuned.

NORAD Santa Tracker - Christmas Eve Santa Tracking

This year, 2010, once again this blogger is following (kinda) the Santa Tracker, but while tree trimming, wine drinking, and talking, and listening to Nat and Frank (Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra).

 But here's my NORAD Santa Tracker Video, because I just had to!



This business of going to the NORAD website to track Santa Claus' trip around the World is rather cool, but I'm in the middle of watching It's A Wonderful Life, so I decided to embed the tracker right here in my blog:



As of 6 PM PST / 9 PM EST, Santa Claus is , well, he's moving really fast! (If the embed doesn't work in your browser, click on the NORAD link.)

Merry Christmas!

Oakland News: Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente Gets DUI Arrest

Sad news. According to the San Jose Mercury News, veteran Oakland City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente (pictured) was arrested for DUI (Driving Under the Influence) Thursday night at 7:30 PM.

Nacho was arrested, booked, released, and given a future court date to appear.

The CHP (California Highway Patrol) Officer said something that can and should do him in, in court: that "he believed De La Fuente was speeding" and that the officer "noticed impairment."

So, let's see here.

First, the CHP officer didn't have a speed gun to have evidence to back his claim of speeding. Second, the officer didn't have a Breathalyzer to record Ignacio's blood - alcohol level to back his claim that Ignacio was "impaired."

What the hell was this CHP officer doing?  No speed gun.  No Breathalyzer.  And he just hauls Ignacio in, anyway.  Near Christmas.  

Nuts.

I don't care - not a big rats butt - if it happens to everyone; it's not supposed to happen to anyone. So, for those of you who applaud this news, don't.  Stop supporting a screwed up system just because you love to see bad things happen to good people.

If the Alameda County Superior Court judges are worth the votes it took to get them into office, this case should be dismissed.  It damn well better be.

It should be against the law for any officer to make a DUI arrest without instrument record to back his or her claim.   That's just wrong.

Maybe now that Ignacio's got a taste for this crap, as I do, he'll become an advocate for a better system. The one California has in place is nothing more than a money-mill to maintain a California prison-industrial system.

Merry Christmas and don't drink and drive.  Let's have a weekend where the cops have a ZERO arrest record.  Don't give any CHP officer an excuse to arrest you.   Oakland police have better things to do.

Get a limo, like I did in this video: